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The Mac Pro is making its exit from the European market a little ahead of schedule. As of Tuesday morning, Apple began showing the Mac Pro as unavailable via its EU online store, 10 days before the March 1 deadline it announced at the end of January.

Apple first announced its intention to stop shipping the Mac Pro in the EU beginning March 1 due to a new EU safety standard, IEC 60950-1. As we wrote in January, an amendment to the regulation adds new safety requirements for computers and electronics, and the Mac Pro simply doesn't meet them. "The new requirements necessitate fan guards and some increased protection on the ports on the electrical system," Apple told Macworld UK in January. "Because Mac Pro is not compliant with the regulations, we do want to meet that regulation and therefore [will] not offer Mac Pro beyond March 1."

But it's February 19, not March 1. As noted by MacRumors, when Apple first made the announcement about ending Mac Pro sales in the EU, it also told third-party resellers there would be a deadline of February 18 for preorders. What wasn't known at that time was that Apple apparently meant the February 18 deadline would apply to all EU customers buying from Apple.

The current iteration of the Mac Pro will no longer be available throughout the European Union, as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland, and EU candidate countries. As such, if you live in the EU (or one of the other affected countries) and intended to buy a Mac Pro before March 1, you may have to get your fix through a reseller while supplies last.

Then again, Apple CEO Tim Cook dropped some pretty heavy hints last year that a new Mac Pro would arrive this year, so perhaps it's time to sit back and wait to see what's coming down the pipeline—assuming it meets IEC 60950-1.

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Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui

Is there an epidemic of fingers being hacked off by computer fans that I'm not aware, that necessitates the entire Mac Pro production to stop, instead of a silent hardware revision to add a fanguard?

My guess is they actually already stopped actual physical production of Mac Pros and are really just selling the already manufactured units at this time. They may or may not have already started manufacturing of the new model. If the physical case is new, they probably will need the greatest amount of lead time on it, so likely they are already being made.

You are totally correct - I'm too used to US and Japanese online stores which never ever put taxes in the price.

I'm sure the companies have other reasons to buy thru their US HQs, probably a tax aversion scheme.

Bearing in mind, of course, that some states in the US do not charge sales tax. If a company has a branch in one of those states, then they would indeed theoretically be able to realize some cost savings there. The only other questionable cost factor that I can think of is whether or not there are any import/export duties associated with purchasing computers in that fashion...

Bearing in mind, of course, that some states in the US do not charge sales tax. If a company has a branch in one of those states, then they would indeed theoretically be able to realize some cost savings there. The only other questionable cost factor that I can think of is whether or not there are any import/export duties associated with purchasing computers in that fashion...

I don't know the tax laws in all of the EU, but generally, companies don't pay sales tax at all.

If companies paid salestax, you'd end up with tax on tax on tax on the final product for the consumer. For that reason only end consumers pay tax.

Maybe Apple gives volume discount, that makes it attractive to make one large purchase. Or a customer wants a special feature on all their machines.

Funny story is that I hear a number of Euro companies buy their Mac Pros from their US Arms due to pricing/Euro conversion differences.

Pricing on that Page:

<snip>

Apparently the companies that do that are totally correct in doing so. (Cause shipping from the China to the UK does not cost an extra 400-500GBP)

In the UK prices are advertised including VAT, they aren't in USA.

When you figure in the price they cost exactly the same.

Sales tax is usually less than 10%. The US prices quoted by keltor are 20-25% lower, so tax won't make up the difference.

Whilst sales taxes may be less than 10% in the US VAT in the UK is 20%. A 20% increase of the quoted US quad core price brings us up to 1935.60 GBP. Still over £100 less than the real UK price but much closer. Also for fairness sake we should be using the GPP/USD exchange rate from when the prices were set not the current rate.

Funny story is that I hear a number of Euro companies buy their Mac Pros from their US Arms due to pricing/Euro conversion differences.

Pricing on that Page:

<snip>

Apparently the companies that do that are totally correct in doing so. (Cause shipping from the China to the UK does not cost an extra 400-500GBP)

In the UK prices are advertised including VAT, they aren't in USA.

When you figure in the price they cost exactly the same.

Sales tax is usually less than 10%. The US prices quoted by keltor are 20-25% lower, so tax won't make up the difference.

Whilst sales taxes may be less than 10% in the US VAT in the UK is 20%. A 20% increase of the quoted US quad core price brings us up to 1935.60 GBP. Still over £100 less than the real UK price but much closer. Also for fairness sake we should be using the GPP/USD exchange rate from when the prices were set not the current rate.

Purchasing electronics in the US and then importing into the UK would require you to pay both the customs fee and the import VAT, on top of whatever sales tax was paid in the US state. I.e. it'll be more expensive, unless you commit tax fraud and violate customs requirements.

Bearing in mind, of course, that some states in the US do not charge sales tax. If a company has a branch in one of those states, then they would indeed theoretically be able to realize some cost savings there. The only other questionable cost factor that I can think of is whether or not there are any import/export duties associated with purchasing computers in that fashion...

I don't know the tax laws in all of the EU, but generally, companies don't pay sales tax at all.

If companies paid salestax, you'd end up with tax on tax on tax on the final product for the consumer. For that reason only end consumers pay tax.

Maybe Apple gives volume discount, that makes it attractive to make one large purchase. Or a customer wants a special feature on all their machines.

I don't know about the US but in the EU companies should still pay VAT for equipment bought for their own use because in that situation they are the end consumer. Only when they have a provable VAT trail to another end-user can they legally not pay VAT.

Funny story is that I hear a number of Euro companies buy their Mac Pros from their US Arms due to pricing/Euro conversion differences.

Pricing on that Page:

<snip>

Apparently the companies that do that are totally correct in doing so. (Cause shipping from the China to the UK does not cost an extra 400-500GBP)

In the UK prices are advertised including VAT, they aren't in USA.

When you figure in the price they cost exactly the same.

Sales tax is usually less than 10%. The US prices quoted by keltor are 20-25% lower, so tax won't make up the difference.

Whilst sales taxes may be less than 10% in the US VAT in the UK is 20%. A 20% increase of the quoted US quad core price brings us up to 1935.60 GBP. Still over £100 less than the real UK price but much closer. Also for fairness sake we should be using the GPP/USD exchange rate from when the prices were set not the current rate.

Purchasing electronics in the US and then importing into the UK would require you to pay both the customs fee and the import VAT, on top of whatever sales tax was paid in the US state. I.e. it'll be more expensive, unless you commit tax fraud and violate customs requirements.

I don't know about the US but in the EU companies should still pay VAT for equipment bought for their own use because in that situation they are the end consumer. Only when they have a provable VAT trail to another end-user can they legally not pay VAT.

I live in Denmark, so our tax code I know.

A Danish company would not pay tax on anything they purchase for company use, including a computer such as a Mac pro.

It can become a bit interesting if a company purchases say, a car, for an employee, as that employee must then figure out when he's driving it "on the job" and when he's not for tax reasons. Not the companys problem though.

But I do suspect that this could indeed be different in other EU countries. In fact I think the Danish tax on companies is very lenient, even compared to the US, and then harsh on the consumers (hey, what can the consumers do? Decide not to be born here? ).

Is there an epidemic of fingers being hacked off by computer fans that I'm not aware, that necessitates the entire Mac Pro production to stop, instead of a silent hardware revision to add a fanguard?

The fanguard is only ONE ofseveral new regulations the MacPro does not meet, and meeting them ALL requires a complete hardware revision, not some simple fixes. Apple was NOT going to do that with new Xeon's and a new intel Chipset that actualkly supprots TB in their Pro line coming out in a mere few months. in fact, that release should have already happened but intel delayed it, causing this timline issue.

Is there an epidemic of fingers being hacked off by computer fans that I'm not aware, that necessitates the entire Mac Pro production to stop, instead of a silent hardware revision to add a fanguard?

Apple just seems like the only hardware maker that can't be bothered to follow the new European rules.

Actually, LOTS of products have been pulled for these rules, not just Apple's. Apple has chosen to pull and relwease a new machine later instead of fixing this one because they're putting NEW Xeons in an all-new Mac Pro in a few months. Why not now? Because Intel HASN'T RELEASED THOSE CHIPS OR CHIPSETS YET so they CAN'T be sold yet. If this was to be a long delay, say 5-6 months +, yes, we would have all expected apple to fix the current Mac Pros and continue sales, but since a new model is imminent, and since it;s totally resaonable for companies who do in fact need a MacPro in the meantime to get one, Apple chose the better path which is to wait on intel.

Anyone who thinks ONLY apple was impacted by this ruling is either dumb or a troll.

Funny story is that I hear a number of Euro companies buy their Mac Pros from their US Arms due to pricing/Euro conversion differences.

Pricing on that Page:

<snip>

Apparently the companies that do that are totally correct in doing so. (Cause shipping from the China to the UK does not cost an extra 400-500GBP)

In the UK prices are advertised including VAT, they aren't in USA.

When you figure in the price they cost exactly the same.

Actually, on sales tax vs VAT alone, they do not. however, including the EU's higher support costs (more hours per day as well as linguistic support), import duties, costs of maintaining local offices, costs of finding real-estate at reasonable prices for Apple stores, language localization for products, complications dealing with multiple governments, international patent and other business costs, legal costs, and more, the additional difference in price becomes much more reasonable.

Is there an epidemic of fingers being hacked off by computer fans that I'm not aware, that necessitates the entire Mac Pro production to stop, instead of a silent hardware revision to add a fanguard?

Apple just seems like the only hardware maker that can't be bothered to follow the new European rules.

Except that the last major revision to the Mac Pro was introduced before these new rules in 2009. Seriously, that was the last time Apple did a major revision of the Mac Pro. The update in 2010 was just new firmware and added six core options via the newly introduced Xeons. The 2012 bump just adjusted pricing and made moved several BTO to stand features.

Apple has been in dire need of refreshing the Mac Pro lineup for years. The death of the Mac Pro in Europe is an embarrassment.

Is there an epidemic of fingers being hacked off by computer fans that I'm not aware, that necessitates the entire Mac Pro production to stop, instead of a silent hardware revision to add a fanguard?

Apple just seems like the only hardware maker that can't be bothered to follow the new European rules.

Actually, LOTS of products have been pulled for these rules, not just Apple's. Apple has chosen to pull and relwease a new machine later instead of fixing this one because they're putting NEW Xeons in an all-new Mac Pro in a few months. Why not now? Because Intel HASN'T RELEASED THOSE CHIPS OR CHIPSETS YET so they CAN'T be sold yet. If this was to be a long delay, say 5-6 months +, yes, we would have all expected apple to fix the current Mac Pros and continue sales, but since a new model is imminent, and since it;s totally resaonable for companies who do in fact need a MacPro in the meantime to get one, Apple chose the better path which is to wait on intel.

Anyone who thinks ONLY apple was impacted by this ruling is either dumb or a troll.

And since sales of MacPros pretty much stalled while people are waiting for the 2013 model, its not like Apple will lose lots of sales. So this seems like totally reasonable solution rather than trying to fix an old design.

Anyone who thinks ONLY apple was impacted by this ruling is either dumb or a troll.

Well Apple is the only high profile tech company having a gap in its offering because of this regulation. And that's because they have not updated their platform for years, period.

And what is this strange rant about Intel ? Other manufacturers have a current line up with current processors. Apple not being able to deliver current tech and delivering at all in EU is a deliberate choice from the company, don't search for excuses.

Actually, on sales tax vs VAT alone, they do not. however, including the EU's higher support costs (more hours per day as well as linguistic support), import duties, costs of maintaining local offices, costs of finding real-estate at reasonable prices for Apple stores, language localization for products, complications dealing with multiple governments, international patent and other business costs, legal costs, and more, the additional difference in price becomes much more reasonable.

No it does not become more reasonable. It is still a ripoff compared to purchasing a product in the USA.

What is really going on is that most US based companies do not allow import directly from the USA -- they open a branch in Ireland as if that country is a big fucking warehouse and make you go through Ireland if you want to import their goods.

Take Creative as an example -- audio card that costs $80 in the USA costs €120 in Ireland and elsewhere on the old continent. Dell monitor? $700 is €1400 here. Etc, etc.

Is there an epidemic of fingers being hacked off by computer fans that I'm not aware, that necessitates the entire Mac Pro production to stop, instead of a silent hardware revision to add a fanguard?

Apple just seems like the only hardware maker that can't be bothered to follow the new European rules.

Except that the last major revision to the Mac Pro was introduced before these new rules in 2009. Seriously, that was the last time Apple did a major revision of the Mac Pro. The update in 2010 was just new firmware and added six core options via the newly introduced Xeons. The 2012 bump just adjusted pricing and made moved several BTO to stand features.

Apple has been in dire need of refreshing the Mac Pro lineup for years. The death of the Mac Pro in Europe is an embarrassment.

I have the suspicion that it is just a pretense to stop production on these machines that were never properly updated and overpriced for what they delivered. Or does anyone know businesses that can still justify the cost of MacPros? That good looking iMac does not sell so well either. After all, Apple is going for consumer products and lightweight usage, apart from the last MBPr which is, here at work, our favourite Windows machine

According to the PDF I found, IEC 60950-1 is a standard dating back in 2005. Did it really took this long for it to be ratified and put to use or what?

I don't know why it dates back in 2005, but the standard wasn't introduced overnight. The March 1 2013 deadline was known since 2010 or something like that. Such a high profile company like Apple shouldn't create such a gaps in their product line.

Anyone who thinks ONLY apple was impacted by this ruling is either dumb or a troll.

Well Apple is the only high profile tech company having a gap in its offering because of this regulation. And that's because they have not updated their platform for years, period.

And what is this strange rant about Intel ? Other manufacturers have a current line up with current processors. Apple not being able to deliver current tech and delivering at all in EU is a deliberate choice from the company, don't search for excuses.

Apple is using current processors. The intel Xeon Chipsets that support TB are NOT AVAILABLE YET. Apple has NO reason to redesign a mainboard to support chipsets that are not available. Since Apple uses Intel's BTX (not ATX) form factor in current Mac Pros, it would be exceedingly expensive to redesign a machine just for one nation for just 3 months of sales to comply with minimal regulations. Other companies using ATX form factors had little required design changes, or are in fact in the habbit of changing chassis designs on a whim several times a year.

Keep in mind, making the mac Pro compliant is NOT as simple as changing a few fans or adding guards, to comply would have required a MAJOR overhaul of the entire chassis and mainboard, just to support chips that are in the same generation they ALREADY support.

Actually, on sales tax vs VAT alone, they do not. however, including the EU's higher support costs (more hours per day as well as linguistic support), import duties, costs of maintaining local offices, costs of finding real-estate at reasonable prices for Apple stores, language localization for products, complications dealing with multiple governments, international patent and other business costs, legal costs, and more, the additional difference in price becomes much more reasonable.

No it does not become more reasonable. It is still a ripoff compared to purchasing a product in the USA.

What is really going on is that most US based companies do not allow import directly from the USA -- they open a branch in Ireland as if that country is a big fucking warehouse and make you go through Ireland if you want to import their goods.

Take Creative as an example -- audio card that costs $80 in the USA costs €120 in Ireland and elsewhere on the old continent. Dell monitor? $700 is €1400 here. Etc, etc.

Those are not examples equivalent to the 20% increase Apple charges (VAT inclusive). THOSE are rip-offs and deserve explanation.

The cost differences alone in order to have a legal team large enough and fluent enough in the EU's complex and jumbled regulations alone adds a significant anual cost to any company. In the USA, we have on major set of laws over products because the commerce clause of the constitution gives the Fed (not the states) say in such matters. 380m consuymers, one set of laws. In the EU, though the EU itself(through treaties) has a significant say, EACH of those 20+ individual nations STILL have their own individual laws over improts, warranties, product regulations, and more. It;s a goddamned minefield of little laws requiring significant (and constantly changing) managewment. Complicate that by managing a support staff that speaks 7-10 languages instead of 2 and operates 5-11 hours different schedule from Apple's normal support office hours and you can add those costs.

Then, you think warranty wqorks from the USA? no. They have to stock parts in each nation, or close enough,m in the EU to support repairs. In the USA, each apple store has some parts, and they operate only a few nationsal facilities otherwise, but, in the EU, because of labor barriers and boarder laws, Apple has to maintain MANY more facilities per capita to do the same. The entire EU's population is 500m, of which apple only sells direct to about 400m of them, roughly the same as the whole USA, but clearly logistics, warehousing, support, language barriers, legal compliance, and more cause issues. a roughly 10% premium (plus VAT) is totally consistant with those costs. the roughly 30% price increase for Australia even more so due to greatly lessend sales, significantly higher logistics costs, and near opposite working hours from normal support operations, plus the highly diverse and spare population complicating warranty support and store operation costs per sqft further.

Keep in mind, making the mac Pro compliant is NOT as simple as changing a few fans or adding guards, to comply would have required a MAJOR overhaul of the entire chassis and mainboard, just to support chips that are in the same generation they ALREADY support.

The only thing I don't get is, that standard was around since 2005. And at least since 2009 it was clear it was going in effect in 2013. I work in a medium sized company, and we have whole departments working on keeping to all current and future standards.

My guess is, Apple made a bet concerning the availability of those Intel chips, and lost it. There might be some sound business mathematics behind all of that, but still, it's embarrassing.

I don't know about the US but in the EU companies should still pay VAT for equipment bought for their own use because in that situation they are the end consumer. Only when they have a provable VAT trail to another end-user can they legally not pay VAT.

Edit: Hmm actually thinking about it I'm not so sure

You pay VAT for all purchases, final or not. Then you take out the VAT paid from the VAT charged and pay the difference in your VAT declaration.

It may be positive or negative, so you may end up with a refund in your VAT declaration.

Usually if you have the same VAT - the final VAT to consumers may be different from the VAT charged when you bought the goods - you pay a little difference between the two, usually the VAT percentage of your mark up.

You buy for 100€ and pay a 20% VAT you are charged 120€. You sell for 200€ and charge a 20% VAT, you sell for 240€. The VAT difference you have to pay in your declaration is 40€ VAT charged minus 20€ VAT paid, so 20€.

The VAT declaration use to be each three months - more exactly before the 20th of the next month after each trimester.

In this case, as It have been pointed by someone, if you buy in the US you pay the US taxes, the customs duty, the VAT on the goods price, and usually a fee from a Customs Processing Agency that will manage all paperwork at customs for you, unless you are going to go to whatever customs it happened your goods entered the country to do the paperwork yourself.

Just a minor correction, within the EU - Schengen Area - there are no labour barriers and no borders.

There's complete freedom of movement of people, workers, goods, capitals and services. This is a core requirement of the EU's internal market rules.

zelannii wrote:

EACH of those 20+ individual nations STILL have their own individual laws over improts, warranties, product regulations, and more. It;s a goddamned minefield of little laws requiring significant (and constantly changing) managewment.

This is not accurate. The EU is also a customs union. There are no customs barriers between member states and there is a common customs policy towards non EU members. It does not matters where you get your goods into the EU, and once into it you are free to move them wherever you need them without customs or any other barrier.

zelannii, you appear as misinformed about Australia as you are about the workings of the European Union. Australia has the most urbanised population on Earth, most Australians live in a handful of major conurbations (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane etc) and all computer and software companies inflate their prices here just because they can - so much so that there's a government inquiry into it at the moment.

Australia has the most urbanised population on Earth, most Australians live in a handful of major conurbations (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane etc) and all computer and software companies inflate their prices here just because they can - so much so that there's a government inquiry into it at the moment.